Book Description
America's cities are being rapidly transformed by a sinister and homogenous design. A new Kind of urbanism--manipulative, dispersed, and hostile to traditional public space--is emerging both at the heart and at the edge of town in megamalls, corporate enclaves, gentrified zones, and psuedo-historic marketplaces. If anything can be described as a paradigm for these places, it's the theme park, an apparently benign environment in which all is structured to achieve maximum control and in which the idea of authentic interaction among citizens has been thoroughly purged. In this bold collection, eight of our leading urbanists and architectural critics explore the emblematic sites of this new cityscape--from Silicon Valley to Epcot Center, South Street Seaport to downtown Los Angeles--and reveal their disturbing implications for American public life.
Customer Reviews:
The Critics' Contempt for Simulated Spaces.......2001-08-12
This is a very thoughtful and provocative collection of eight essays on various simulated spaces which have infiltrated the American landscape. The book's overall thesis is that public space and "authentic" urban life increasingly has been replaced by simulations of urban life, usually as spaces of commodification (e.g. malls, gentrified districts, theme parks). In this process of replacing public space, aspects of American public life--open space for assembly, the interaction of different people, concern for communities--also get erased. While simulated spaces may seem to improve public space and public life, they do so at a cost, one that the critics seem to suggest is the loss of real public space and perhaps even of democracy.
The purpose of this book is not only to describe these spaces, but to oppose them. Each of the authors point to the negative effects of simulated space. In many cases, the essays' implications jump right out of the page and into your neighborhood. Margaret Crawford's essay on the Edmonton shopping mall could be applied to any mall in Anytown, USA. Neil Smith's essay on gentrification points out the high price that comes with "revitalization"; one is reminded of many similiar projects outside his NYC example: Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle,and so forth. Edward Soja and Trevor Boddy both contribute well-written essays which demonstrate growing chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots." With these essays, extended and local comparisons with dying urban areas and suburbia, sprawl, gated communities, and so forth are appropriate. Michael Sorkin's own essay on Disneyland turns a well-wrought phrase, and gives the Disney Studies scholar much to think about. (NOTE: Those interested in Disney should read this article if nothing else in the collection, although many of the essays are applicable to the study of Disney.) Of the essays, it is perhaps the one least obviously applicable to "real" life. But then again, Sorkin notes the distance between the simulated environment of the theme park and the reality of the city is decreasing.
Of course, the scholars' analyses are dark and even depressing. And more than once, the authors manage to sound like angry young critics filled with more agenda than action. More than once, extended discussion of the issues raised in the essays would have helped--although many of these authors do have full-length treatments elsewhere--or perhaps alternative perspectives which would have varied the collection's tone and helped sustain readers' interest. And like any collection some of the essays are stronger than others. Overall, though, the collection makes a reader stop and think. Many readers will end up carefully reconsidering 1) the state of American life and its public space and 2) one's participation in these developments. Variations deserves recognition for addressing these issues.
Very comprehensive.......1999-04-22
This book enlists many different authors, who all have an amazing point of view on the built environment. From gated communities to Disneyland, every chapter expresses concerns of fast-changing developed environments. Our cities are quickly becoming cold, enclosed enclaves. This book helped me realize how our society has snubbed the utilizaton of public space. This is definitely a book for every person interested in city planning, urban studies,or sociology. Whether a student or leisure reader, this book will open your minds to what is really taking place in our cities, suburbs, resorts, and recreational facilities. Any place in which society is forced to interact with one another is referred to in "Variations on a Theme Park". Read it. It will open your mind!
Book Description
From the day it opened in July 1955, in an event given live TV coverage, Disneyland has been a key symbol of contemporary American culture. It has been both celebrated and attacked as the ultimate embodiment of consumer society, a harbinger of shopping-mall culture, a symbol of American hegemony in entertainment, the epitome of fantasy, simulation, pastiche, and the blurring of distinctions between reality and mass-media imagery. Yet for all the power of Disneyland as metaphor, almost no one has discussed the making of this unique place, with its far-flung colonies in Florida, Japan, and France. Written to accompany an exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance is the first book to look beyond the multiple myths of Disneyland.
Uniting a roster of authors chosen from wide-ranging disciplines, this study is the first to examine the influence of Disneyland on both our built environment and our architectural imagination. Tracing the relationship of the Disney parks to their historical forbears, it charts Disneyland's evolution from one man's personal dream to a multinational enterprise, a process in which the Disney "magic" has moved ever closer to the real world. Editor Karal Ann Marling, Professor of Art History and American Studies at the University of Minnesota, draws upon her pioneering work in the Disney archives to reconstruct and analyze the intentions and strategies behind the parks. She is joined by Marty Sklar, Vice Chairman and Principal Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, historian Neil Harris, art historian Erika Doss, geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, critic Greil Marcus, and architect Frank Gehry to provide a unique perspective on one of the great post-war American icons.
Customer Reviews:
Disneyland Revisited: The Reassurance of Scholarly Research.......2007-04-23
This book is a must have for enthusiasts and interested scholars. The book is filled with many pictures, illustrations and original renderings of Disneyland, and the subsequent other parks. The conceptual development of the original Disneyland is the focus of the book that admirably discusses the many details involved in the process. The amazing part for me was the scholarly research and the well written quality of the text. The subject is well examined for the volume of information it covers. It is the first book I have come across that credit's Walt Disney's innovative process of applying stage set design to 3D proportionality using an over-ridding narrative to connect it all. The scholarly research by art historians and architects for the Canadian exhibition is impressive, which is done without the control of the Disney Corporation. The scholarly nature of the book lends a new dimensionality to the understanding of Disneyland as an innovative artistic development, and a new architectural expression.
Unlike other texts I have read about Disney architecture, this one takes on the subject from the art historical perspective examining the process that creates a new architectural form. Other books seem to veer away from this in favor of the new, celebrated corporate architecture at Disney company headquarters, or on these applications at newer Disney parks. By concentrating on the original development of Disneyland as a concept of Walt Disney's, and his special team of designers, the idea is well established as creating the foundation for everything else that comes after. This difference is insightful, and makes the understanding of the original conceptual design clearer.
I highly recommend this book for the wealth of information it provides and the good read it is. Even for a seasoned Walt Disney enthusiast, like me, it provides a new awareness of the multi-dimensional qualities of the form created, and it makes a rich addition to the information previously unknown.
Fabulous Book on Disney.......2004-03-16
This book is great! I also want to be a Disney Imagieer. I already designed some cool, new rides. I hope I become an Imagineer! See Ya!
One of our TOP TEN Books on the Walt Disney Studios.......2003-03-14
While created as a companion text to the 1997 exhibition hosted by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), this remarkable record is as fascinating to Disney fans and collectors as it is valuable to researchers and scholars. One feast at this banquet table will never be enough. Readers will be returning to this masterwork for decades to come.
From the project's genesis in meetings between Nicholas Osberg (Chief Curator, CCA) and Marty Sklar (Creative Director, Walt Disney Imagineering), an agreement was reached whereby every historic file and document at The Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney Attractions, and Walt Disney Imagineering was made available to the exhibition's research team. Together, they met the awesome challenge of providing an in-depth analysis of the cultural phenomenon that began with Walt Disney's original theme park known as Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
As the project's director of research and curator of the exhibition, Karal Ann Marling has assembled a text that not only details the architectural elements of creation and design, but integrates the historic backstory and visual wonderland that led to the creation of the Disney theme parks in Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo, and Paris.
Designers, Disney-fans, Architects, Dreamers...listen up!.......2001-12-29
This book is amazing. It immediately captured me. It gives valuable insight on the vison of disneys world and on how this vision becomes tangible.
Not only it talks abou the history of the themeparks but it shows the sketches, maps, plans of different parts and attractions of the disney world. An amazing resource full of phantasy and a joy to watch. The photographs and illustrations are very well chosen and it is a plasure to flip through this pages every once in a while. A very inspiring book, showing that often it is enough to dream it and then it becomes reality.The most peculiar shapes and interior spaces are built to be reality.
I highly recommend it.
Engaging Thoughts about Disney.......2001-01-26
Many books on Disney's art and achitecture try to convey its appeal primarily through the visual. Other books, particularly those that whole-heartedly criticize Disney, try to ignore the appeal of Disney altogether. This book attempts to integrate the visual evidence (photos, concept art) with academic writing on Disney (Karal Ann Marling, Erika Doss, Greil Marcus, etc.). Together, these aspects make for a solid inquiry as to the appeal of Disney's architecture.
The book was written to supplement an art exhibit of the same name and, in many ways, feels a bit incomplete without its exhibition, partly because the book tries to cover a lot of territory in its two hundred or so pages. And a lot of the book's pages are used for the essays. But the essays also provide the readers with another "way of seeing" the imagineers' works, something that other books of this type tend to forgoe for more pictures. The essays are irreplaceable for this book--and many are useful for re-examining other books' materials as well (Try it!).
Particularly useful for the Disney enthusiast is the criticism of Disney criticism by Greil Marcus. He astutely summarizes much of the current criticism of Disney: "All [the works mentioned earlier in the essay] have their moments of interest and all devolve quickly into a kind of critical voice that can perhaps best be called spite. This is not a good posture from which to practice criticism--an angry defensiveness, a fear that somehow one's faculties or tools of analysis are not up to the job disguised as contempt for the job itself...." What Marcus calls for is a real attempt to understand Disney for what it is and for how it affects people/American culture, something too few critics have done without falling into an either all-good or all-evil knee-jerk reaction. Worse, many critics make no attempt to experience Disney before making up their minds. This essay is an excellent reminder to those critics and a call to action.
The other essays are interesting and useful, as well. The interview with Frank Gehry seems a bit brief, and perhaps Karal Ann Marling takes too much center stage in the interview (as with the entire book). Still, this book opens the door for an appreciative examination of Disney and one that embraces Disney by attempting a "thick description" of its materiality and appeal. This book will not provide an exhaustive look at Disney's theme parks but it will offer the interested reader materials with which to look at Disney's parks in a new way.
Book Description
Communities across the country are working to convert unused railway and canal corridors into trails for pedestrians, cyclists, horseback riders, and others, serving the needs of both recreationists and commuters alike. These multi-use trails can play a key role in improving livability, as they offer an innovative means of addressing sprawl, revitalizing urban areas, and reusing degraded lands.
Trails for the Twenty-first Century is a step-by-step guide to all aspects of the planning, design, and management of multi-use trails. Originally published in 1993, this completely revised and updated edition offers a wealth of new information including.
- discussions of recent regulations and federal programs, including ADA and TEA-21
- recently revised design standards from AASHTO
- current research on topics ranging from trail surfacing to conflict resolution
- information about designing and building trails in brownfields and other
- environmentally troubled landscapes
Also included is a new introduction that describes the importance of rail-trails to the sustainable communities movement, and an expanded discussion of maintenance costs. Enhanced with a wealth of illustrations, Trails for the Twenty-first Century provides detailed guidance on topics such as: taking a physical inventory and assessment of a site; involving the public and meeting the needs of adjacent landowners; understanding and complying with existing legislation; designing, managing, and promoting a trail; and where to go for more information. It is the only comprehensive guidebook available for planners, landscape architects, local officials, and community activists interested in creating a multi-use trail.
Book Description
America's parks-and their architectural companion, the log cabin-hold a powerful grip on our imagination. Harkening back to a simpler time, these rustic structures serve as a reminder of America's frontier spirit, and serve as a popular source of inspiration for contemporary architecture, in everything from simple vacation homes to the mansion "lodges" favored by today's wealthy elites. This classic three-volume survey, first published in 1938 by the National Park Service, details in photographs and measured drawings the rich legacy of America's park structures. In over 500 illustrations, Park and Recreation Structures documents picnic tables, dams, drinking fountains, trail signs, storage sheds, bridges, boathouses, lodges, and inns from the glory days of park construction. Reproduced in its entirety in a single volume, this book will serve as a source of ideas, details, and imagery for architects, landscapists, gardeners, and anyone interested in America's national parks.
Customer Reviews:
Great "Catalogue" of American Log Construction.......2005-11-18
The golden era of handcrafted log construction was 1920's and 30's, and this wonderful book details, in project after project, the structures that had been built in America's National and State parks during that time. Cabins, lodges, visitor centers, even bridges, drinking fountains, fire pits, outhouses, and log benches-they all get photos, drawings, and commentary in this encyclopedic work.
Albert H. Good wrote several books as Architectural Consultant for the National Park Service, and 3 of them are bound into one huge book here--it is the size of a library dictionary. More than 600 pages, and countless photos and drawings, the publisher used high quality paper and library binding. It feels like an expensive book!
For me, the drawings are the gems. B&W photos must be difficult to scan and reproduce from the original, and some of the photos in this book, while generally very good, have suffered just a little. But this is nit picking.
This book is a treasurehouse of handcrafted stone and log structures--these were craftsmen working at the peak of their abilities. And the designs are superb-they have the human scale, the warmth, and the charm that current architects could learn from. Great log homes don't need to be 4000 square feet, or have 20-foot ceilings. This book is proof of that.
Save up and buy this book. Use it when designing your own log home or cabin. Share it with friends. I have been building log homes, and writing about log home construction, for 23 years and each time I browse this book I learn something new.
Robert W. Chambers, author, Log Construction Manual
great reference.......2005-09-25
This is a beautiful book and an excellent reference. It is a reprint of the three volume set published in 1938. "Patterns From the Golden Age" is a cheaper reprint of the same thing - but the quality of the photos in this version is well worth the extra money.
Buildings and sites of the WPA and CCC era........1999-08-08
This is the best source book for the architectural projects and site concepts produced during the 1930's for the Works Projects Administration (WPA)and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Albert Good's narrative provides insight into the motivating forces that employed thousands of out of work architects, engineers, skilled craftsmen and laborers to produce projects that now form the core of our national and state park systems.
Most of the work produced under this program is enjoyed by today's tourist as the premier and most desirable destinations for outdoor experiences. Few new park facilities can duplicate the environments created by these dedicated workers on superbly selected and planned sites during the darkest days of the "Great Depression". The hand crafted, and sometimes intricately decorated, architecture and natural landscape planning evolved from talented designers and often unskilled laborers who lavished their work with love that only the lack of deadlines, the motivation of an empty stomach, a belief in the benefit for their fellow countrymen and the need to build with on site materials can produce. These buildings are truly "green buildings" before the term and recent politically correct notion became fasionable.
Any architect, engineer, conservation and environmental supporter or depression era historian can benefit from this publication which brings one in contact with a nation faced with financial ruin and the effect on the hopes and spirit of its citizens. It demonstrates that when given a chance, the work ethic that has and hopefully will always exist in this nation produces fantastic results..........that we can roll up our shirt sleeves and pull on our boots to produce marvelous and lasting accomplishments even under great adversity.
I recommend this book not just for the professionals whose vocations it represents but also for those who wish to understand the mountains that can be moved with a little sweat and perseverance.
Average customer rating:
- An excellent, up-to-date textbook.
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Financing and Acquiring Park and Recreation Resources
John L. Crompton
Manufacturer: Human Kinetics
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ASIN: 0880118067 |
Customer Reviews:
An excellent, up-to-date textbook........1999-01-11
This book is much improved over the old Howard/Crompton or Deppe texts. It is very apparent to me that the author has thoroughly researched his topic area. His emphasis on active financing rather than just budgeting is something which very much attracted my immediate attention. A few years ago, I took an independent study course on partnerships from Dr. Wilbur LaPage. Much of what Dr. LaPage was teaching about can be found in John Crompton's new book.
George Tabbert, Ph.D. Candidate & TA in Budgeting & Revenue Resouces, NRRT, Colorado State University
Book Description
* Shows how parks can effectively promote both the conservation of biodiversity and rural development
* Examines the competing demands on parks and provides lessons, derived from over fifty case studies, applicable to parks around the world
* Researched and written by top scholar-practitioners from the Southern Africa Sustainable Use Specialist Group of IUCN
Parks face intense pressure both to conserve biodiversity and provide economic opportunities for rural communities. Based on the insight from over fifty case studies, this book synthesizes lessons to guide park management in transitional economies where the challenges of poverty and governance can be severe.
The central insight is that parks are common property regimes that supposedly serve society. If parks are set aside to serve poor people, should conservation demands over-rule demands for jobs and economic growth? Or will deliberately using parks as bridgeheads for better land use and engines for rural development produce more and better conservation? Accountability emerges as a major issue at all levels, including the problematic linkages between park authorities and the political system, and the ability to measure park performance. This book provides important lessons in park management regarding the relationship between conservation and commercialization, performance management, new systems of governance and management, and linkages between parks, landscape and the land-use economy.
Book Description
Why are some places better than others? Why do we get out of our cars and walk through certain towns, and take the bypass around others? Why are some neighborhood parks assets to their communities, and others liabilities? What if we want our public spaces to be assets in our communities and neighborhoods, but don't know how to make them thrive? How do we make our public spaces into great community places?
The result of 25 years of experience working in communities around the country and internationally, How to Turn a Place Around is a primer for everyone from mayors to community members on evaluating and transforming public spaces into thriving centers of community activity. Sections include: Why Places are Important to Cities; What Makes a Place Great; Why Many Public Spaces Fail; An Alternative Approach to Planning; The 11 Principles of Creating Great Public Spaces; and a Workbook For Evaluating Public Spaces. Through examples of peoples' experiences in other cities, PPS demonstrates that, with an understanding of how a place works, any place can be “turned around.” “Today there is a growing understanding of how a focus on place can change how design and engineering professionals function,” writes Fred Kent in the book's forward. “If we move away from our own agendas and toward the idea of creating places, there will be a major shift in how our communities and cities function and grow. In fact, many communities are turning to alternatives to the traditional, project-oriented approach to neighborhood revitalization. We are making headway. Downtowns are once again becoming places to walk and shop and gather. Our city parks are greener than at any time since the turn of the last century, and we are discovering new ways for them and for our downtown plazas and civic squares to function as centers of community life.”
Book Description
Urban parks such as New York City's Central Park provide vital public spaces where city dwellers of all races and classes can mingle safely while enjoying a variety of recreations. By coming together in these relaxed settings, different groups become comfortable with each other, thereby strengthening their communities and the democratic fabric of society. But just the opposite happens when, by design or in ignorance, parks are made inhospitable to certain groups of people.
This pathfinding book argues that cultural diversity should be a key goal in designing and maintaining urban parks. Using case studies of New York City's Prospect Park, Orchard Beach in Pelham Bay Park, and Jacob Riis Park in the Gateway National Recreation Area, as well as New York's Ellis Island Bridge Proposal and Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, the authors identify specific ways to promote, maintain, and manage cultural diversity in urban parks. They also uncover the factors that can limit park use, including historical interpretive materials that ignore the contributions of different ethnic groups, high entrance or access fees, park usage rules that restrict ethnic activities, and park "restorations" that focus only on historical or aesthetic values. With the wealth of data in this book, urban planners, park professionals, and all concerned citizens will have the tools to create and maintain public parks that serve the needs and interests of all the public.
Customer Reviews:
Cultural diversity in urban park planning.......2006-03-19
Urban parks provide important public spaces which invite different groups to meet and relax, strengthening community interactions - but at times parks become inhospitable to different groups. Cultural diversity should be the key goal in designing urban parks, the authors maintain: RETHINKING URBAN PARKS: PUBLIC SPACE AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY uses case studies of selected New York and Philadelphia parks to identify common problems and how parks may be used to manage cultural diversity. Chapters survey limiting factors to park use, ethnic activities, and restoration project goals. College-level students of urban planning and public space access will find this essential to understanding how cultural needs interact with urban park design and use.
Average customer rating:
- Good management history but neglects the larger philosophical question
- New Challenges in Park Management
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The New Urban Park: Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Civic Environmentalism (Development of Western Resources)
Hal K. Rothman
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
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New Guardians for the Golden Gate: How America Got a Great National Park
ASIN: 0700612866 |
Book Description
From Yellowstone to the Great Smoky Mountains, America's national parks are sprawling tracts of serenity, most of them carved out of public land for recreation and preservation around the turn of the last century. America has changed dramatically since then, and so has its conceptions of what parkland ought to be.
In this book, one of our premier environmental historians looks at the new phenomenon of urban parks, focusing on San Francisco's Golden Gate National Recreation Area as a prototype for the twenty-first century. Cobbled together from public and private lands in a politically charged arena, the GGNRA represents a new direction for parks as it highlights the long-standing tension within the National Park Service between preservation and recreation.
Long a center of conservation, the Bay Area was well positioned for such an innovative concept. Writing with insight and wit, Rothman reveals the many complex challenges that local leaders, politicians, and the NPS faced as they attempted to administer sites in this area. He tells how Representative Phillip Burton guided a comprehensive bill through Congress to establish the park and how he and others expanded the acreage of the GGNRA, redefined its mission to the public, forged an identity for interconnected parks, and struggled against formidable odds to obtain the San Francisco Presidio and convert it into a national park.
Engagingly written, The New Urban Park offers a balanced examination of grassroots politics and its effect on municipal, state, and federal policy. While most national parks dominate the economies of their regions, GGNRA was from the start tied to the multifaceted needs of its public and political constituents-including neighborhood, ethnic, and labor interests as well as the usual supporters from the conservation movement.
As a national recreation area, GGNRA helped redefine that category in the public mind. By the dawn of the new century, it had already become one of the premier national park areas in terms of visitation. Now as public lands become increasingly scarce, GGNRA may well represent the future of national parks in America. Rothman shows that this model works, and his book will be an invaluable resource for planning tomorrow's parks.
Customer Reviews:
Good management history but neglects the larger philosophical question.......2007-10-08
In this book, Hal Rothman provides a history of Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). Rothman sees this as an example of a new type of urban park, though he doesn't really spend any time comparing it to Gateway NRA in New York, Cape Cod NRA outside Boston, Cuyahoga NP outside Cleveland, Santa Monica Mountains NRA outside Los Angeles, and the many other examples of urban national parks - - which should probably include the open spaces in Washington DC such as Rock Creek Park and the National Mall, for that matter. Instead, he views GGNRA more or less as one of a kind, despite the title of the book.
Two related themes take up most of his book: "civic environmentalism," that is, the local interest groups that pushed for the park and that shape its every action; and the management challenges that the National Park Service (NPS) faces in this environment. These challenges include issues such as dealing with natural and man-made fires, off-leash dogs, a nude beach, protecting cultural and historic resources, and figuring out what to do with Alcatraz. Most of the book deals with such matters and the politics around them. Rothman's narrative always risks going off into minutiae, but he keeps his eye on the larger management issues.
Rotman also includes lots of "obiter dicta" in his narrative - - opinionated and unsupported comments about American politics and society that are irrelevant for the story here. It's indicative of this predilection that Rothman mentions Ronald Reagan and his Interior Secretary, James Watt, far more than he mentions Nixon, Carter, Clinton or either Bush, or their Interior Secretaries. Rothman would rather get in some digs at Reagan and Watts as he tells the story, though these two figures were no more involved in decisions at Golden Gate than, say, Clinton and Babbitt.
Aside from that distraction, this is an informative and well-crafted book. I'd like to know more about why people think Golden Gate is a *national* resources as opposed to a state or regional resources, and in fact many of its properties used to be state parks. Given the remarkable diversity in resources, why should all these non-contiguous units be gathered together in a single national recreation area? Rothman never addresses this larger issue, which seems to me a fundamental policy question about these kinds of parks.
New Challenges in Park Management.......2004-11-18
Completing a full-length history of Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) might seem odd considering its relative youth compared to other national park areas. Hal Rothman, chair of the history department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas demonstrates the park deserves such a study because it is different than anything the National Park Service has managed before. At GGNRA, the traditional NPS management style had to be adapted for a dynamic urban population that visited the urban park for a variety of reasons, most of which were not the typical uses long-established in the bureau's "crown jewels" like Yellowstone, Yosemite and Glacier.
Accustomed to exerting great influence in and around its larger, more conventional parks, at GGNRA the park held "one of many seats at a regional political and economic table" (x). Residents did not defer to park management like they had in and around the crown jewels. Previously, national parks functioned more as symbols than participatory reality (2). At GGNRA, the park service had to accept fully participating public and break its affinity to hiking by admitting visitors that enjoyed activities such as biking, hang gliding, skateboarding instead of simple sightseeing.
GGNRA has presented many management challenges. The park is largely without boundary signs or markers and it has been easy for visitors to overlook its national status (61). Many areas of the park contain private property, which is a source of management difficulty because the owners' decisions could impact visitors experience in the park and the park's ecology (94). Unlike any previous national park, GGNRA established a Citizen's Advisory Board. The NPS has greatly heeded to public comment in shaping management practices. The park presented one of the most comprehensive management plans ever enacted (62).
Interpreting became the linchpin of the park, a way of communicating to its endless constituencies. Instead of merely explaining features, interpretation in GGNRA explained the very presence of the Park Service (150). Interpretation and management of the park will always be a challenge, according to Rothman, because GGNRA is "asked to be all things to all people, all the time" (xi). GGNRA is a prime example demonstrating that no single presentation will impress all national park visitors. Multiple presentations must exist to appeal to a public that visits national parks for a myriad of reasons. Nowadays national parks are anything and everything to visitors, depending on their interests, whether they are recreational enthusiasts or car-bound sightseers.
The book contains one large map of the park, but no photographs or more detailed diagrams. The narrative would be thoroughly enriched by providing its readers with a means of visualizing the locations described. In the introduction, Rothman states that the Park Service embraced recreation in the 1960s. The park service, in reality, has embraced recreation since its inception. The author declares later in the narrative that the NPS was more accustomed to viewing its visitors as hikers and equestrians than bikers and skateboarders. Hiking and horseback riding are definitely forms of recreation. These small weaknesses aside, The New Urban Park proves a thorough study of how NPS management has had to reinvent itself to take on the administration of sanctuaries that appeal to a wider public than it has traditionally served.
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- Zapping Conflict in the Health Care Workplace
- 100 Caterpillars: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica
- 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth
- A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs: Northeastern and north-central United States and southeastern and south-centralCanada (Peterson Field Guides(R))
- Air Pollution Control (3rd Edition)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- WINGS AROUND THE WORLD: The Exhilarating Story of One Woman's Voyage From the North Pole to Antarcti
- The Wheat-Free Cook: Gluten-Free Recipes for Everyone
- The Guiltless
- The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
- The Amityville Horror
- The Einstein Factor: A Proven New Method for Increasing Your Intelligence
- The New Way Things Work
- Frontiers in Health Policy Research: Volume 6
- The Creative Edge: Fostering Innovation Where You Work
- Evita: Truth or Dare
Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World
Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community
Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination (Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes)
The Karma of Brown Folk
Power Politics
